The U.S. Economy: A Two Parent Household

One of the first and least surprising criticisms of my beliefs as a Democrat is the idea that I want government to be "my mommy." It's an absurd simplification of the basic doctrine that the legitimate role of government is to protect those who can't protect themselves. Much though they hate to hear it, conservatives believe this as well, though it's by circumstance, not by choice. If you profess to believe that the true purpose of the Iraq war was to spread democracy throughout the Middle East, then welcome aboard this basic Democratic principle. Since it's good enough for Iraqis, I happen to believe that it's good enough for Americans as well. We can get to this point later. For now let's finish talking about "mom."

One of the core beliefs of the conservative doctrine is the idea that the free market is an inherently moral institution. It has to be, they argue, because if a company were to behave like a complete bastard then people would stop shopping there and it would go out of business. Therefore markets don't need to be regulated. The consumer will regulate the market for you. So effective is this "invisible hand of the free market" that conservatives will argue that "entitlement programs" like Social Security and Medicare would be unnecessary if we'd just let the private sector handle it.

The flaw with this philosophy becomes evident in a couple of different ways. First and foremost, I'm left to wonder how a free market that is based on the exchange of money will take care of people who don't have any. But that's a little too general. Let's take a look at how the free market works in the context of the immigration debate. The free market has established a very low wage for skilled labor due to a high supply of undocumented workers willing to be low-cost laborers. It's not that immigrants do jobs that even American's don't want to do. It's that immigrants do jobs that American's don't want to do for less than minimum wage. In the free market employers get to pay $3 / hour for a service they would normally have to pay $8 / hour to get in a properly regulated market.

Some may argue that the immigration argument shouldn't count because a truly 'free' market has to be a legal one. In that case we need look no further than the California energy crisis of 2001 to find a perfectly legal example of the free market run amok. Companies like Enron manipulated a free market system to rack up huge amounts of sales revenue, not by providing good service, but by providing no service. Enron's own internal memo described the "Death Star" strategy whereby the company made money off of consumers by "moving energy to relieve congestion without actually moving any energy or relieving any congestion." Left to its own devices the free market again moves toward the least common denominator of maximizing profit whatever the societal cost.

That's not to say the free market is inherently immoral. It's neither moral nor immoral--it's amoral. It can do great things, and it can do terrible things. So if government is like your mom, the free market is like your dad...assuming that your dad is a recovering alcoholic. Some days he's Costco and he's coming to your little league games and cheering for your team. Other days he's Wal- Mart, running over your bicycle while pulling into the garage. But on REALLY bad days the free market is like Enron, and he's coming home drunk to beat the piss out of you and your sister.

The free market tries to handle things on its own. It keeps telling mom, "I don't need any help! I don't have a problem!" The conservative doctrine of Personal Responsibility wouldn't have it any other way. But as Rush himself has shown us, sometimes you can't make it on your own. Sometimes you need to support of a loving partner to get you through the hard times, and to keep you from hurting yourself and those around you. Or to put it in terms that conservatives will understand, "Like any family, the U.S. economy is at its best when it's a two parent household."